text: As an odd-electron species, CH is a radical. The ground state is a doublet (XΠ).  The first two excited states are a quartet (with three unpaired electrons) (aΣ) and a doublet (AΔ). The quartet lies at 71 kJ/mol above the ground state. 
  Reactions of the doublet radical with non-radical species involves insertion or addition:
  :[CH](XΠ) +  → H + CO (major) or 
  whereas reactions of the quartet radical generally involves only abstraction:
  :[CH](aΣ) +  →  + [HO]
  Methylidyne can bind to metal atoms as tridentate ligand in coordination complexes. An example is methylidynetricobaltnonacarbonyl .